You are one ugly cat.

It rained yesterday - the sun had gone down and I took a chair and sat out on the porch for a while.

It was warm and more like a late autumn day instead of almost being Spring!

As I was sitting there taking in the few fireflies and enoying the weather when I saw a cat come out from under the neighbor's truck.

Hmmm, another neighborhood kitty?

There are two kitties that the lady next door feeds so I thought it was coming over to take a dump in the small dirt area next to the area where I was sitting.

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The porch is a small square of concrete and after the car crashed into the house, they removed a brick planter from the area which left a small patch of clay like dirt in it's place.

It's not a huge area, but since it's under an eave, it's always dry and a perfect place to take a dump....if you are the neighborhood cat.

Hokay, I get it......

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The one small corner has a small wooden box that I built to hide a gray bucket where I drop the filled 'doggie bags' that Tucker fills after we take our walks.....It's so I don't have to walk all the way to the back yard to drop them into the trashcan.

On a few occasions, I have gone to empty the bucket and seen that something has dragged a bag out of the bucket, torn it open and emptied out.

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The cat is walking towards me and I can see that he/it is white furred and walking kinda strange.

As it got closer, I noticed that it was one of the ugliest cats I had ever seen. It's dragging itself along and has a weird, hairless tail and I see

IT'S A POSSUM.

I laughed and it stops dead in it's tracks when it realized I am there. I started to get out of the chair and he/it runs back under the car........

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Hokay, that answers some of my questions and I know that he may be back, so I'll let him get closer and see what happens.

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About 10 minutes later, here it comes again, waddling back across the driveways....up on the grass and closer, closer...

He's about as close as I am going to allow him when I throw my hands up and hiss, like a cat!

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He turns around and starts to move as fast as he can, back by the truck.

He gets to the concrete, crosses the neighbor's drive and gets almost to the edge, when a cat comes flying across his path.

I guess the cat, hearing me hiss at the possum, got spooked - had he been a split second late, they would have hit that same spot - at the same time.

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I laughed like a maniac, wondering how that meeting would have ended up.

It is funny, Paul, who grew up with cats, can hiss so that a cat immediately understands it is unwelcome and better run! I, however, hiss and the cat comes closer, assuming I want to pet it. Sigh. Cats know instinctively I love them, and I do knot speak cat well enough to convince them otherwise.

Possums are not nasty, but are marsupials - our only North American Marsupial, and are nocturnal and shy. The "naked" tails make people think they are mean and ugly, but unless cornered, they want nothing to do with humans, and would much rather run away!

Hah! Thanks for the laugh! We don't have possums roaming around here, but, we do get to see mongooses (probably because of the graveyard near my house.. )

Sana - we don't have mongooses here, but they were imported into Hawai'i - so when we saw them there, we had to ask what they are! And at least you don;t have to worry about snakes as much, with mongooses nearby!

It is funny, Paul, who grew up with cats, can hiss so that a cat immediately understands it is unwelcome and better run! I, however, hiss and the cat comes closer, assuming I want to pet it. Sigh. Cats know instinctively I love them, and I do knot speak cat well enough to convince them otherwise.

Possums are not nasty, but are marsupials - our only North American Marsupial, and are nocturnal and shy. The "naked" tails make people think they are mean and ugly, but unless cornered, they want nothing to do with humans, and would much rather run away!

Maybe not with humans, but one killed all but one of a litter of kittens at my mom's. That one had wandered off and mom found it in the yard. He became her Sunshine. The mother was either killed or wandered off to die of old age. Mom tried for years to catch the momma and have her spayed. That was one smart cat.

And one mean and hungry possum. Perhaps having humanity encroach on their havitat forces a change in demeanor. Anyway, the cats may not are well against the possum

Possums are just UGLY, you got that right.
My moms dog found a baby possum in the garage. It played dead, as they do, so my mom took it out and put it in the trailer they use as a dumpster that gets taken to the dump twice a year. Later, after we realized the playing dead gig, we convinced my dad to go check on it. It was gone!!!

I'm hoping the outdoor kitties are seasoned enough to know not to mess with the wildlife critters.

Our goal in life should be - to be as good a person as our dog thinks we are.

We used to have possums and Porch Cats in the same area, and they seemed to get along reasonably well.
Both Cats and Possums i have found are not aggressive unless cornered or as in the case with all animals , their young are seemingly in danger.
There was not fighting as far as I could see.
I remember when a Raccoon snuck in and there he was sharing food with Four Cats , quite amiably.